Kerry’s Got Kennedy’s Nod, if Not His Politics

WASHINGTON -- It was early 1995. Republicans had just taken control of Congress, and demoralized Democrats gathered to discuss opposition strategy. Liberals wanted to push for an increase in the minimum wage, but other Democrats had doubts -- including John F. Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts.

Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts’ senior senator and an icon of liberalism, blew a gasket. “If you’re not for raising the minimum wage, you don’t deserve to call yourself a Democrat,” Kennedy told Kerry.

But nine years later, when Kerry was in dire political straits, Kennedy was there for him, talking up his credentials to lead the party’s fight for the White House.

He lent some of his top aides to run what had been a foundering presidential campaign. He went on the stump, making the case that Kerry was the best choice for the Democratic nomination. And in the process, he brought the Kennedy charisma to help turn an underdog into the race’s front-runner.

To do so, he put aside differences on key issues -- from welfare to Iraq -- and a history of staff feuds to promote Kerry’s bid for the prize that eluded Kennedy in 1980, when he tried to snatch the nomination from President Carter.

“I feel very strongly about the direction of the country,” Kennedy said in an interview last week, discussing his decision to aid his colleague. “John Kerry is the man for this time.”

Kerry lavishes praise in return. At one joint appearance, he stole a line that last year helped propel rival Howard Dean’s candidacy, calling Kennedy “the voice of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.”

Republicans have acted quickly to try to turn the Kennedy-Kerry connection into a liability for the candidate they now anticipate President Bush will face in November’s election. The core GOP strategy for discrediting Kerry -- already set in motion -- is to portray him as just another Massachusetts liberal, like Kennedy, who is out of step with mainstream American values.

But try as Republicans might to join the two senators at the hip, a look at Kerry suggests that he is no Kennedy clone. Kerry’s record, while liberal, is laced with votes and views that depart from Kennedy’s and demonstrate more centrist positions on trade, welfare and other issues.

“Kennedy plants the liberal flag so firmly, but with Kerry it’s hard to caricature him,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “Kerry tends to be very buttoned-up, and that makes him easier to sell as a centrist.”

Indeed, it would be hard to find two men who have more different styles. Kerry is reserved, with a controlled and standoffish demeanor. Kennedy is gregarious, an engaging raconteur and purveyor of bonhomie. If Kennedy is the classic backslapper, Kerry is a handshaker.

In the Senate, Kerry has focused on foreign policy topics and made a reputation as an investigator, rather than a legislator. Kennedy has mastered domestic issues, such as education and healthcare. And, unlike Kerry, he is the go-to guy for delivering constituent service and federal projects to Massachusetts.

“You’ve got to understand that Ted Kennedy is legendary in the history of politics for that sort of stuff,” said Paul Nace, a close friend of Kerry’s who met him when they were Vietnam-bound naval officers. “The standard to which John is being compared is the platinum standard, let alone the gold standard.”

From the time he won his Senate seat in 1984, Kerry has had to labor in the shadow of Kennedy, who after his failed 1980 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination became a master legislator. Kennedy’s clout among other lawmakers compounded the friction often found between the senators.

“We both have aggressive staffs,” Kennedy said, “so there’s always that competitive part.”

Kennedy insisted the competition “was never anything of seriousness.”

Still, a few years ago, when Kerry parked a car in a spot believed reserved for the handicapped, a Kennedy aide alerted the media, according to a source familiar with the episode.

Kennedy and Kerry have become closer in the last 10 years, say those who know both well. When Kennedy faced a tough reelection race in 1994, Kerry worked hard for him. When Kerry had his own brush with defeat in 1996, Kennedy returned the favor. They sail together off Cape Cod in summers, and their wives have become fast friends.

Kennedy and Kerry have traditional liberal stances on gun control and environmental protection. Both opposed the 2003 law banning certain late-term abortions. In 1996, they were two of only 14 senators voting against the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Americans for Democratic Action -- a liberal group that ranks lawmakers’ voting records -- has given them nearly identical scores for the period since they started serving together in 1985.

By another of the group’s measures -- career-long voting average, which for Kennedy dates to 1962 -- Kerry got the higher score. That led Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie to say recently: “Who would have guessed it? Ted Kennedy is the conservative senator from Massachusetts.”

But those analyses of certain votes obscure Kerry’s departure from liberal orthodoxy on key fronts. The 1995 confrontation over the minimum wage was emblematic. Kerry expressed reservations about making it “a front-and-center” matter for Democrats, Kennedy recalled, while organized labor and liberals saw it as a defining issue.

In 1992, Kerry gave a speech raising questions about affirmative action. In 1998, he challenged teachers unions with a speech proposing to “end tenure as we know it.”

He has been a strong proponent of expanded international trade, parting ways with Kennedy in 2002 by voting for a bill increasing the president’s power to negotiate trade agreements. And in 1996, he stood with Democratic centrists in supporting the welfare reform law, which Kennedy opposed.

“I don’t think it is possible to pigeonhole Sen. Kerry as a classic Massachusetts liberal,” said Will Marshall, head of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute and a backer of his presidential bid. “He has a more complex record than that.”

The two senators had a stark disagreement in the fall of 2002, when Kerry voted for -- and Kennedy vigorously opposed -- the resolution authorizing Bush to invade Iraq.

None of their disagreements kept Kennedy from backing Kerry for president early -- and with deeds as well as words.

He called Kerry frequently to offer campaign and policy advice. He held a fundraiser at his family’s Hyannisport compound. When Kerry late last year ditched his campaign manager, Jim Jordan, the replacement was Kennedy’s chief of staff, Mary Beth Cahill. One of Kennedy’s former media aides, Stephanie Cutter, also joined the Kerry camp.

At one point this winter, when Kerry’s presidential prospects had been widely written off, Kennedy went unbidden to the candidate’s Washington campaign headquarters to give a pep talk. Kennedy told staff members of how inaccurate early polls turned out to be when he ran in 1980, Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said.

Heading into Iowa’s Jan. 19 caucuses, when Kerry appeared headed for no better than a third-place finish, Kennedy played a particularly crucial role. Joining Kerry for numerous appearances, he was a galvanizing presence for many Iowans. He is credited with helping Kerry win the backing of many liberal activists who had been leaning toward Dean.

“The energy he brought to the rallies in the Iowa days was very moving for those in the Democratic caucuses,” Meehan said.

Kennedy is scheduled to campaign with Kerry today in Green Bay, Wis.

He went to New Hampshire as well, where one rally turned into a family reunion. The senator appeared with his wife, Vicki, and his son, Patrick, a House member from Rhode Island.

“There is no Democrat, no one in this country, who is better prepared” to be president than Kerry, Kennedy thundered.

The two bantered about their relationship in the Senate, which Kerry summed up with a joke.

“I was backstage before we came out here, and I was asked, ‘What’s it like to be serving with this titan of the United States Senate, with this person whose shadow you can never get out from under?’ ” Kerry said. “ ‘What’s it like to work for somebody that’s a living legend in the United States Senate?’ ”

Kerry paused and smiled. “It was Ted Kennedy asking me the question.”

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Times staff writer Elizabeth Mehren in Boston contributed to this report.